Drag Me Through Hell
by Arianna Koz
Summary: Magnus has always been willing to use as much magic as necessary to save Alec - even all of it if need be. But what happens when Magnus needs saving and only Alec can help? *Sorry for the break, new chapters by end of June!*
1. Chapter 1

**Summary** : Magnus has always been willing to use as much magic as necessary to save Alec - even all of it if need be. But what happens when Magnus needs saving and only Alec can help?

 **A/N:** First of all, welcome! Glad you stopped by! As you can see, this is my new TMI fic. Some things to say before we begin.

 _One_ : As much as Malec is my OTP, there isn't going to be a lot of Malec moments here. They do exist, just don't expect them very often. Sorry. And _two_ : Ok, some of the demon stuff is going to be a little off canon. Mostly minor, I hope. I tried to research things as much as possible. If there is a glaring error, PLEASE let me know! However, if you _can_ let it slide, please do.

But enough talk! On to the story! Without further ado - Drag Me Through Hell.

* * *

Even though Magnus ate the last of the pancakes, Alec couldn't find it in himself to get worked up about it. Yes, Magnus was a pancake thief, but he looked so _good_ doing it. His signature impish grin was doing funny things to Alec's heart rate. A hundred years ago, people would have seen that grin and called him a daughter-stealer. Luckily for Alec, Magnus wasn't _only_ interested in daughters. The wink was the last straw, though.

"Just take the pancake. There's no need to seduce me for it, Magnus." Alec tried to make his voice sound tough and no-nonsense, but anyone could see that he didn't really mean it. He'd let Magnus get away with almost anything, at this point.

Magnus leaned over the table until his face was just inches from Alec's. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Alec noticed. "You lost my cat, so you owe me."

"Oh, that was a cat? That explains it." The barb was empty. Alec was actually rather fond of Chairman Meow and was very sad that he'd managed to lose him so quickly when Magnus had left for just 30 minutes a few days ago. But there were only so many times he could apologize for the same thing. And Magnus seemed much less concerned than a person who thought their cat was lost forever should be. Alec figured that Magnus was sure Chairman Meow would make it back home eventually, and that he was just milking this situation while it lasted.

"No, Chairman Meow is actually a unicorn." The sarcasm was obvious, but Alec chose to ignore it.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about feeding and caring for a unicorn anymore. It's so hard to find good unicorn feed these days."

Magnus just rolled his eyes and gave Alec a quick kiss on the forehead before sitting back down on his side of the table. "You still owe me. This one measly pancake isn't nearly enough to repay me for the loss of my cat. Anyway, what are you doing today?"

"Not much, just going to the Institute for a bit for a group training session." Alec checked the clock on the wall. "Actually, I'm going to be late." He picked up his plate and cutlery and dumped them all in the sink. He got a quick kiss from Magnus as he headed out the door.

10 minutes later, Alec was back at the door, fumbling with his keys. _I'm such a scatterbrain sometimes_ , he thought to himself. _How could I have forgotten my phone_ _ **and**_ _my stele?_ He finally opened the door to the apartment and froze when he saw what Magnus was doing and who he was with. Neither of them said anything for a moment. Alec sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I never lost your cat, did I?"

Magnus looked up at him sheepishly from where he'd been playing with Chairman Meow on the floor. "No, not exactly. He was actually just next door."

The thing was, Alec wasn't even surprised. It had a weird sort of logic to it. He'd thought that Magnus was a little too unconcerned about the Chairman's disappearance, but he'd chalked it up to Magnus not wanting to make him feel too bad about it. He shook his head with a sigh. "I'm not even going to ask." Of course, saying that was basically the same thing as asking 'why' anyway.

Magnus just shrugged. "I figured it would be a good way to extort you into doing what I want. Which worked out well for me last night, don't you think?"

Alec couldn't help the blush that crept up into his cheeks. He mumbled, "That had nothing to do with the cat and everything to do with you being so damn irresistible." He hadn't meant for Magnus to hear him, but evidently he had, if the way he raised his eyebrows was any indication. At this point, Alec's cheeks would put a tomato to shame.

"What was that?" asked Magnus with a grin. "You'll have to speak up." he said as he stood up and took a slow step towards Alec.

An idea came to him suddenly. "I said, now _you_ owe _me_ instead. Ah, what to do with my new found power?" The color slowly started to fade from his cheeks.

Magnus took a step closer as he talked. "Hmm. And, what, exactly do you plan to do with all this … power, as you call it?" He smirked.

Alec closed the gap between them until his nose was just millimeters away from Magnus's. "Well, for starters, I think I'm going to have to miss training today."

Magnus's voice had gone rather quiet and breathy all of a sudden. "What a shame."

"Not really," was the last thing Alec said before pushing Magnus up against the wall with an impish grin of his own.

...

Alec had gotten back to the Institute late that night. No one else seemed to be awake, which he was grateful for. He was going to get an earful in the morning about missing training. As he fell asleep, he smiled. It was more than worth it.

When he went down to the kitchen in the morning, Izzy was already sitting there. Thankfully, she was eating toast that morning and Alec breathed a sigh of relief. He felt a little bad about missing training and he would have likely forced himself to swallow down whatever she would have cooked, as a sort of lame peace offering.

Izzy finished chewing before turning to face Alec. "Oh, so you finally decided to show up, did you?"

Alec tried to look as nonchalant as possible. "I texted you to let you know I wasn't going to be able to make it."

"And why was that again?" Izzy asked with her eyebrows raised.

Alec spoke through a mouthful of toast. "Something came up." He shrugged.

Izzy rolled her eyes and turned away, mumbling. "You mean Magnus came up."

Alec sputtered. But really, he figured he shouldn't have been surprised. Izzy knew him better than almost anyone. "What—no. Why—What gave you that idea?" He knew it was useless as he was saying it. Izzy smirked.

"Whatever. It's not like I haven't done the same thing once or twice. But do me a favor and come up with a better excuse than 'something came up' before everyone else gets here, OK? Jace is just going to make some comment guaranteed to embarrass you." She paused, looking at the phone on the counter beside her. "Oh, you missed a call a little while ago." She handed it to him as she went to put her plate in the sink.

The call was from Magnus, about an hour earlier. Strange. Magnus usually didn't wake up until noon if he didn't have anything to do. Why he'd be awake, much less calling him at 6 AM was a mystery to Alec, so he figured he'd call back. Magnus had likely gone back to sleep, whatever the reason. It wasn't likely he stayed up after calling. So Alec was surprised when the phone picked up on the third ring and even more surprised when the voice on the other end wasn't Magnus.

"What a pleasant surprise, Alexander," said the man. It was a deep and firm voice, and it didn't belong to anyone Alec knew, as far as he could tell. "Magnus was calling out for you for quite some time and I was just beginning to wonder who this enchanting 'Alec' person must be. "

He dropped his phone in shock. _No_ , he thought. _Not Magnus_. He sprinted through the Institute and was knocking on Clary's door in seconds.

"Ok, ok! I'm coming!" she yelled. As soon as she opened the door, Alec grabbed her arm and started dragging her outside. "Ow! Alec, you're hurting me!" Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jace running towards them down the hall. He ignored him.

"I need a Portal, Clary and I need it NOW."


	2. Chapter 2

The door to Magnus' apartment was wide open when Alec got there. He knew that Magnus almost never left his door open. Heart racing, he ran up the stairs and flung himself into the apartment. At first, it looked like Magnus had fallen asleep on the couch. At least, until his eyelids fluttered open weakly and focused on Alec.

"No," he whispered. "You have to go—"His eyelids fluttered closed again. "Please." he said so quietly that Alec could barely hear him.

"Shh... I'm not going anywhere, Magnus." Alec knelt beside the couch, stroking his hair. He couldn't see any wounds anywhere on Magnus, which scared him. It meant the damage was internal. He started to pick him up, meaning to bring him to the Institute's infirmary. But before he could, a voice called out to him.

"While endearing, your efforts are futile, Alexander." It was the same voice from the phone call. Spinning around, Alec didn't see anyone at first. Then, a man's body seemed to melt out from the shadows. He was tall, at least 6 feet. His piercing green eyes seemed like they could see right through Alec. His hair resembled that of Victorian nobility and he had just enough facial hair to resemble the perfect cartoon villain. The blood red of his shirt stood out against his pale skin.

"Who are you? What did you do to him?" The man didn't have an obvious warlock mark on him or seem to be any other kind of Downworlder. _It could just be a glamour, though._ Was it safe to hope otherwise? The man almost seemed to be … a mundane, and that made Alec dare to hope that what he did to Magnus was easily reversible. Yet for a simple mundie to affect Magnus, a powerful warlock? It shouldn't be possible. Who was this man?

"How rude. Demanding answers before I've barely walked into the room. It has been such a bother, hanging around here. I should have left sooner." As he took a step towards the couch, Alec moved to stand in between him and Magnus. "How touching." the man said with a sneer. "Useless, but touching."

"You already know my name. So my first question is quite fair. And I'd just really like the answer to the second one too, if it's not too much of a _bother_." On the outside, Alec looked calm and in control. He even managed a smile. But on the inside, his emotions were a tornado threatening to tear him apart at any moment.

A moment of tense silence hung between them. Alec never took his eyes off of the man, but he ignored Alec, instead looking pensively out the window. The silence was unbearable to Alec, so as quietly as he could, he walked over to the man to shake him out of his seeming reverie. The man spun around and caught Alec's hand when it was mere millimeters away from his shoulder. "I can sense your approach, Nephilim."

 _He's definitely not a mundane,_ thought Alec. Giving up his Jace-like tough demeanor, he looked the man (if he could be called that) dead in the eyes. "Please."

The faint smile that appeared on his lips enraged Alec. _How dare he smile?_ It was almost like he enjoyed his pain.

The realization hit him then. "You're not a mundie, or a warlock. You're ... a demon."

"Well yes, other than this body that I've possessed, you're entirely correct." He stood there as if he expected Alec to do something with that information. When he didn't move, the demon spoke again. "What, no heavenly weapons to strike me down? No threats to send me back to the realm from whence I came?"

Alec hesitated before answering. It was never smart to admit your weaknesses to an enemy. He knew that, had been taught that over and over. He remembered a day of training with Jace, where he had rubbed a sore spot on his side only once just before starting. Only once, but Jace had seen and he exploited it. He had hit Alec almost continually in that one spot until he collapsed. And now, that sore spot was Magnus. But somehow he knew the demon expected an answer, and he couldn't think up a convincing lie. "You have a distinct... advantage over me right now." Alec tried not to look at Magnus. Really, he did. But he must've slipped up and looked because the demon laughed.

"Magnus certainly got very lucky, finding you. Not that it matters now. Magnus has a nasty habit of getting in my way, so I simply came to take care of the problem. Seeing as he won't be able to, would you kindly pass the message on to any other warlock you happen to come across?" He started walking towards the door. The normalcy of the action surprised Alec. So much so, that it took him a second to process what the demon had said.

 _Seeing as he won't be able to? What does that—no._ "You can't mean—" Forgetting all about the imminent danger that he himself was in, Alec ran to Magnus. Magnus was still breathing, but barely. It took Alec a moment to place the feeling of dampness on his own face. It was tears, streaming down his face. Frantic, he spun back around. "Please. I will do—"Alec caught himself before he told a demon (a very powerful one at that, if he was able to possess a man) that he would do anything. "Please. I am begging you. Don't do this."

The demon stopped walking, but didn't turn around. "Don't do what, Alexander? You'll have to be more specific than that."

Alec felt like saying the words out loud might be enough to tear him apart. He knew he shouldn't, but Magnus' life was depending on him and him alone and he couldn't muster up enough sense of self-preservation to stop himself. "Don't kill him. I don't know what will convince you to leave him even just this tiniest shred of life, but I am prepared to do whatever it takes. I, a soldier of heaven, sworn to kill you and your kind is instead on his knees, begging you. Is that not enough for you? What else will it take?" He was practically shouting now. His tears had soaked the collar of his shirt, but he couldn't bring himself to care. "Please." He whispered again. The very thought of Magnus dying nearly undid him. How was he supposed to survive the real thing?

For a brief moment, the demon said nothing. His borrowed face was carefully blank. "I enjoy your pain, Alexander. It amuses me, feeds me. You are making me stronger every second I stay here. So much stronger in fact, that I see that leaving Magnus alive for at least a little while longer is in my best interests. Don't get used to such generosity. It won't last forever."

"I—thank you." It wasn't really the appropriate response for the situation, but nothing else came to mind. Only one other thought surfaced: _I will kill him_. The demon was in the doorway when Alec called out one last time. "Wait! You never told me who you are. You owe me at least that much."

"I owe you nothing, Alexander. I am Leviathan and I owe nothing to anyone except misery. You'd do well to remember that."

And that was when Alec collapsed. Leviathan. Not only a greater demon, but a bona fide Prince of Hell.

* * *

And that's it for chapter 2! Hope you enjoyed it!

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	3. Chapter 3

It was night when he finally picked himself off the floor and left Magnus' apartment. The city had lost its shimmer, its glamour. Now, it just seemed like a useless collection of gray buildings. The bright signs were just annoying, not dazzling. Alec could barely pick up his feet for each step, but somehow he kept walking. And walking and walking and walking. As if he could outwalk all his problems. Outwalk the fact that _he_ was lying nearly dead in his own apartment. Even thinking _his_ name hurt, so he tried his best not to.  
 _I should have stayed there with him_ , thought Alec. _I shouldn't have left him all alone like that._ But just the thought of staying in that apartment, knowing that he probably wasn't going to be able to save _him_ , it was too much for Alec. So he tried instead to put it out of his mind, at least just for a little while, before it became his every waking thought like he knew it would. But it was so hard, especially now that New York City was no longer the dazzling and distracting place he had grown used to. He had nothing to keep his mind off of what he was trying so hard not to think about except for the pain in his chest. It's funny how emotions will do that to a person, manifest themselves as a physical feeling, as pain, as lightheadedness, as a heaviness that seems to weigh down your very bones. He stopped walking and leaned against a decrepit brick wall. He closed his eyes and waited for the tears to come, but they never did. He left his eyes closed anyway. Maybe this way he could pretend it was all just a bad dream.

A group of young girls fell out of a club door a little while later, laughing and clearly drunk. Alec opened his eyes and looked at them, just to have something to look at. They were maybe in their early twenties. They could barely walk and their sky-high heels weren't helping at all. One girl ended up on the ground. Once, Alec would have laughed at the stupidity of getting so drunk you could barely walk, but now he barely noticed at all. The girl on the ground noticed him staring and winked at him. All her friends giggled at this. She turned back to face them and when she turned back, Alec was gone. He couldn't be bothered to stay around. And what if they came over and started talking to him? At this point, he didn't even know if he was capable of speech anymore.

He had walked out of Brooklyn a long time ago. Every corner had held another memory, another Band-Aid to rip off. Every blink revealed a fresh horror of remembrance. So he walked back to the city. Central Park was such big feature of the city that it should have occurred to Alec that he'd end up there at some point. The sun wasn't up yet, but the sky was just starting to brighten up. Dawn was not far away and Alec knew he should head back to the Institute. But then he would face the questions. Because Izzy would take one look at him and immediately know that something was wrong, and Jace had seen him force Clary to make a Portal in a panic. He couldn't hide his feelings from them, he never could. So he couldn't go back. Somewhere deep down he knew that that idea was problematic but he couldn't remember why and it probably wasn't worth worrying about right now anyway.

Izzy would come for him. He knew that. He was in the middle of the Ramble and he hoped that he was lost. He wasn't the praying type, but if he was he would have prayed to be lost, begged to be lost. He knew he was being selfish. He knew he shouldn't have left _him_ all alone, millimeters from death. But he accepted his selfish nature because he knew if he hadn't run from his problems they would have swallowed him whole. Maybe they already had? He couldn't really tell. He would give anything to be lost and he would give anything to not have to tell Izzy and Jace and Clary and _everyone_ what had happened. He didn't even think he had the words to tell them anyway. Nothing but empty sounds would come out. But, of course, he wasn't lost. The universe has a way of playing sick jokes on people.

The sun was fully up now. Soon, people would start coming in to walk their dogs and do their morning runs. Alec still wasn't lost. He still knew how to get home from where he was. _Both of my homes_ , thought Alec. The thought brought with it a fresh wave of pain. Lamenting the fact that he knew very well where he was, he moved to a glamoured clearing nearby. It would make finding him easier for his family, but at least he'd be shielded from random well-meaning passerby.

Izzy had probably sent him a multitude of texts already. He could visualize exactly what they would say. It'd start with _Where are you?_ then progress to _When are you coming back?_ and then the obvious question, _Are you coming back at all tonight?_ then _Alec!_ And then finally _Are you at Magnus'?_ Alec barely realized that he had failed at his own self-imposed rule of not thinking _his_ name before the pain threatened to take over as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. He didn't bother to get up. What was the point, in a world where Magnus might soon cease to exist?

...

"Jace, something's wrong." Izzy said as he walked into her room. Jace and Clary had only come back in the early hours of the morning, and Izzy hadn't had the heart to keep them from a few hours of sleep when she wasn't even sure anything was wrong. But now she was sure.

"What's wrong?" He sat down on her dresser. He had come as soon as she had yelled down the hall for him.

"Alec isn't answering his text messages. And I can't get a hold of Magnus, so I assume he's not there either. Otherwise he would have at least told Alec that I called."

"Well, Alec not answering his phone might have something to do with the fact that he left it here. And while the last place he went was Magnus', I agree that he's probably not there anymore if no one is picking up." He didn't look particularly concerned by this.

 _That's right_ , Izzy thought, _he dropped his phone in his rush last morning. Stupid of me to forget that._ "I'm going to look for him. He has to be _somewhere,_ right?" She started getting ready to leave. She was just debating the need for battle gear when Jace interrupted her.

"He knows you love to worry, Iz. That means he would have called if he wanted to. He's OK, Izzy. If anything, he probably just wants some space. "

"I know he's not hurt physically, if that's what you mean. Otherwise, you would have already told me he was hurt. But that doesn't mean he's _OK._ There's a difference. _"_

Jace closed his eyes and sighed. Alec probably wouldn't appreciate it, but he could see Izzy's point. He had been feeling a little strange since yesterday afternoon, but it had never occurred to him that it could have been from his Parabatai bond. Unconsciously, he brought his hand up to the mark. "You're right. I'll get Clary and we'll go."

* * *

What do you think so far? Anything in particular you'd like to see?

Until next time!

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	4. Chapter 4

A/N: This is a really short chapter. Sorry. I don't know what happened. But on the bright side, I'm posting two chapters at once!

Also, I know that last chapter might have been a bit confusing and some of you are likely wondering why Alec is acting rather out of character. I'm not going to tell you now, but I do have a reason and you'll find out soon enough.

* * *

They had tried all the obvious spots first. Takis and the like. They'd gone to almost every place that he might have gone to, but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, Clary had the idea of checking the glamoured spots in Central Park. They were secluded and Alec had been known to visit them to train on uneven ground. Now it was late afternoon and they were at the last glamoured clearing in the park.

Jace, Clary and Izzy had barely walked into the clearing when Jace stiffened, looking off into the shady area on the other side of the clearing. "Shit," Jace mumbled under his breath as he sprinted in that direction. Izzy and Clary couldn't see anything from where they were but knew that it was probably just because Jace was Alec's Parabatai and would therefore be more attuned to his followed right behind him.

"Alec, it's Jace. Are you hurt? Do you need an _Iratze_?" It was a stupid question. There was no signs Alec had been in a fight and he wasn't even wearing battle gear. He was curled up at the base of a huge oak tree, shaking, with his fist clenched tightly around something. Jace figured it was something sharp because there was a thin trail of blood trickling from his hand to the ground. Gently, he tried to pry Alec's hands open and that's when he noticed the tears falling down Alec's face. The tears startled Jace so much that he almost didn't notice what Alec was clutching so tightly. It was the key to Magnus' apartment. "Shit." He drew in a deep breath "Izzy, we have a problem." He picked up the key and showed it to her. They all had a pretty good idea of what that meant.

Jace broke the silence first. "I'm just going to ask him. There's no point in trying to put this off." He paused, looking at Izzy. Though he was justified in his decision, he didn't he didn't want to end up on the receiving end of her wrath.

"Can we try to get him to talk to us first?" she asked. It seemed like a good enough idea to Jace. When he turned back around, Alec was no longer on the ground. In fact, he was sitting up against the tree staring unblinkingly at them. Jace chose to take it as a good sign. Maybe it meant that he would talk to them.

"Alec? We were worried about you." Which was not technically true. Izzy was worried about him, and Jace had decided it was worth checking out. Now he was glad that Izzy had gotten them to go looking for Alec. He didn't look good at all. His eyes were red and puffy, like he'd spent ages crying. Jace couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen Alec cry. His hair was all over the place and his clothes were wrinkled. Jace was surprised that his condition could have deteriorated so quickly since the last time he'd seen him. It was just yesterday morning he'd seen Alec perfectly fine. Well, almost, if you ignored the desperate way in which he'd practically begged Clary for a Portal. _I'm such an idiot,_ Jace told himself. _It was so obvious something had been wrong with him yesterday. I should have seen it. Damn it, I'm his Parabatai, I should have known better!_

Alec was silent. Jace had a sinking feeling of where this 'conversation' was going. "Say something, Alec." Still nothing. "Are you hurt?" He seemed to think about this one for a second, and then shook his head so slightly that Jace almost missed it. Jace gave another worried glance back at Izzy. She nodded. He took a deep breath. He really didn't want to hurt Alec more, but they were running out of options. "Alec,... did … did you and Magnus break up?" Jace held himself back from adding the word 'again'. Though, Alec hadn't reacted quite this dramatically the last time. Something was different. It didn't look like he was going to answer. But then he did.

"I wish that was it." Then he squeezed his eyes shut. Nothing else. No other clues. But if what had happened was worse than a break-up and it had something to do with Magnus, what could it be? He turned back towards the girls, who looked just as confused as him.

Clary pointed out the obvious next step. "We have to go to his apartment." The other two nodded in agreement. They all missed the sharp intake of breath behind them. Before they could stop him, Alec was sprinting into the trees, out their sight.

"Izzy, Clary, you go. I'm going after him." He ran after Alec. Something was very wrong with his Parabatai and he would figure out exactly what it was, no matter what.

* * *

Sorry again for the short chapter!

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	5. Chapter 5

Alec was moving _fast._ Jace cursed under his breath as he nearly tripped over a root. He ducked under a branch in his way and nearly lost sight of Alec. _What does that idiot think he's doing? Why is he running away like this?_ He figured Alec must be seriously out of sorts for him to be acting so out of character. He'd been chasing after him for 20 minutes now, jumping over logs and ducking out of the way of low branches. And he still didn't know how to catch up with him. Seeing a ditch, he grabbed onto a branch and used his momentum to swing him over.

It hit him all of a sudden. Alec was heading for the cave. Mundanes think it has been sealed up for decades, but really the entrance is just glamoured. If Alec was planning on hiding in the park until he could shake him off, that's the only place he could be heading. And Jace just happened to know a shortcut. He smiled to himself.

Jace got to the cave just before Alec did. Alec tried to turn around and run away, but Jace caught him easily. But when he turned Alec around, he didn't recognize the wild look in his eyes. Scared, and darting side to side, like an animal that's been cornered by a predator. It confused Jace. No matter what the situation, Alec was always glad to see him, even if he pretended otherwise. Now, it seemed like this was the last place he wanted to be. To be fair, hanging out in a cold, damp and barely lit cave was not high on Jace's wish list either.

Jace pulled out his witch light to illuminate the cave. Alec twisted away from the light. "Go away," he said as he kept trying to pull his arm out of Jace's grip.

"No, I won't." Jace looked him dead in the eyes. _Alec knows better than to think I'd give up so easily_. But Jace wasn't even sure this _was_ Alec anymore. He'd been acting stranger and stranger ever since he'd first found him at the base of the tree.

Alec stopped fighting Jace's grip and let his arm go slack. "Please. Just let me go. It's — it's better that way. "

 _I can't do that_ , _Alec._ "You're coming back with me."

Alec turned his head away from Jace. "Jace, _please._ I don't want to have to—" He cut himself off with a sigh instead of finishing his sentence.

 _Don't want to have to what?_ wondered Jace. He repeated himself, for lack of anything else to say. "You're coming back with me. We'll figure everything else out as soon as we get back. I promise. "

Jace saw something harden in Alec's face. The glare Alec gave him could cut glass, could start a fire. Jace expected him to yell or try to pull away again. Maybe even throw in a swear word or two. But what he wasn't expecting was the punch to the face. It didn't hurt much, but still.

"No, I'm not going with you. Can't you see that I'm trying to—" He gave up on trying to explain and started to run for the exit. Jace grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Alec. Come on. This isn't you." Jace was finding it hard to keep his grip on Alec's shoulder. He had to use his nails to keep his grip. Alec winced, but kept trying to get away. He succeeded by smashing his other fist down onto Jace's arm. Alec flinched as his fist connected. Obviously, he wasn't comfortable with hurting his Parabatai.

"Alec." Jace growled. He _did not_ like this new side of his Parabatai. Still, Alec managed to run away from him again.

 _Why did he have to make this so hard?_ Jace caught up to him easily and swiped Alec's feet out from under him. He landed on his hands and knees, but was up less than a second later, still scrambling for the exit.

"Alec, stop. This is stupid. It's not you." He didn't bother to chase him this time. He knew his Parabatai better than he knew himself and he knew that would make him stop. "Stop running."

Alec stopped. "You're right," he said. Jace breathed a sigh of relief before he continued speaking. "You'll just follow me wherever I go. Even if— even if you'd be better off if you didn't." He turned around to face Jace. But his face wasn't one of defeat. It was one of defiance. And if the punch to the face had surprised him, the kick to his ribs surprised him even more. "But I won't let you! I'm never going back!"

Jace was barely able to block the punch to his solar plexus. On reflex, he grabbed Alec's arm and pulled. Usually, that would tip his opponent off-balance. It was so weird thinking of Alec as an opponent. But Alec took the momentum and ran with it and when he was close enough, he threw his head up into Jace's chin. The force was enough to make Jace drop his arm and stumble backwards. Jace shook it off and tried to dive back into the fight. He knew he needed to win. But he couldn't get rid of the nagging voice that was yelling at him for hurting his Parabatai. And with one look, he knew Alec was hearing the same little voice. Neither one of them was going to enjoy this.

10 minutes later, they were still fighting, and Jace knew he was losing. It was a relatively rare feeling for him but had no doubts in its accuracy. He could barely move his arms anymore and had not been doing much more than blocking for the last few minutes. Alec was not playing by the rules. He was using every dirty trick known to man to win this fight. Jace couldn't believe that this Alec was the same Alec he'd known for so much of his life. It was so at odds with his usual fierce protectiveness of his family. A punch to his side took Jace by surprise and he stumbled and fell. Alec could sense that he'd done enough to ensure a good head start and he turned to leave. Jace couldn't afford to let him go. Who knew if they'd ever find him again if he did? He only had one more card to play, but he was going to hate himself forever for using it. He winced as he called out to Alec, who was already at the entrance to the cave.

"Magnus would be disappointed in you, Alec." Alec stopped in his tracks. "He'd be so sad to see you like this." Alec took a single shaky step forward. Each word felt like acid coming out of Jace's mouth, but he continued. "Magnus once told me that one of the things he loved most about you was how much you protected your family." Alec was swaying on the spot, like he was dizzy. Jace pulled himself up and started walking towards him. Alec took another step, though this one was particularly less stable than the last. "So, if he was here, what do you think Magnus would say about this, Alec?" Jace caught Alec as he collapsed.

"How could you?" Alec stared up at him with hurt eyes. With a huff, he crossed his arms and looked away. "I hate you."

With a sigh, Jace said only "I know." He drew his Steele out and put a Sleep Now rune on Alec, along with two others. He picked him up and started the journey home.

What had he just done?

* * *

The bunny is now tentatively named Carrots. I hope you don't object.

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	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Hello again. Little bit of bad news. An old wrist injury of mine has flared up again, which as you might imagine makes typing a bit difficult. This also means that the chapter lengths are likely going to stay short-ish like they are now.

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It was like a scene out of Sleeping Beauty. Except this time the princess was Magnus and the bed was a couch. Maybe not the best comparison. But Magnus was laid out on the couch in a position that suggested someone had placed him like that and that he had not moved since. And the blankets that were neatly tucked around him without a trace of a wrinkle seemed to confirm that version of events.

"Is he sleeping?" Clary asked. She yelled in his ear while she shook him. "Magnus, wake up!" Nothing happened. She shook him again and his arm fell and hung down on the side of the couch. It was then that Clary noticed that she couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. She looked back at Izzy with panic in her eyes. "Is he dead?"

Izzy was still standing in the doorway. "No."

Clary crossed her arms angrily. "You didn't even check!" Her heart was racing. He was just too _still_.

"Don't need to." She walked over anyway, and went about checking his vital signs.

"Why not? How could you know for sure?" Clary demanded huffily.

"Alec isn't passed out on the floor. Even if he has been stumbling around New York like a madman for nearly a whole day, he'd be much worse off if Magnus had died." She looked at Clary. "Even so, I'm still worried about him." She stood back up, having found both a heartbeat and shallow breathing. "Like I said, he's alive."

"Well, what happened to him then?" Clary looked a little lost. There was still a lot about the Shadowhunter world she didn't understand. None of her lessons had taught her what could do this sort of damage to a warlock, or if they had, she couldn't remember.

"Honestly, can we just head back to the Institute? I'm worried about Alec. Maybe Jace is back already. Alec will likely know what happened anyway." Only then did Clary notice the glazed look in Isabelle's eyes. Of course, she was worried about her brother. Clary felt a little thoughtless.

"Ok." She got up to leave with Izzy, but stopped halfway to the door. "What are we gonna do with Magnus?" Both girls glanced back at him and then each other." We can't just leave him here."

"But what if Alec is already back at the Institute? Wouldn't seeing Magnus likely just upset him more? "Clary sighed. Izzy was obviously so focused on her brother that she couldn't think of anything else.

"Normally, I'd agree with you. But what if— what if whoever did this comes back?"

Izzy didn't say anything for a while. She just looked at Magnus, and then back to Clary. "Alright," she said after a moment. Clary stood in awe for a moment as she watched Isabelle easily pick Magnus up off the couch before walking over to help her. Isabelle ended up carrying most of his weight anyway.

... ... ... ...

An hour later, they were at the elevator in the Institute. The problem was, they didn't know where Alec was. If Jace had already brought him back, he could be anywhere in the Institute. If he hadn't, they could show up at any moment. Izzy was hoping to put off Alec's discovery of Magnus being in the building for as long as possible. Besides, it certainly wouldn't do any good for Alec to see him hauled unconscious into the building.

"Right. Clary, when we get up there, check to see if the way to the nearest guest bedroom is clear. If the coast is clear, let me know. We can move him to the Infirmary later."

Clary pressed the elevator button and the doors opened immediately. "How do you want me to do that?" she asked as the two of them hauled Magnus into the elevator. He didn't start out that way, but after an hour trek across the city Magnus was _heavy._

"Shout for Jace if the coast is clear. Do anything else if it isn't." Clary simply nodded in response as she darted out of the elevator. Izzy only had to wait a moment before she heard Clary's voice shout "Jace!" With a sigh, she picked Magnus up again. _Just think of it as strength training,_ she told herself. On her way to the room, Jace actually appeared and wordlessly helped her carry him the rest of the way.

Once Magnus was safely deposited in the bed, Izzy turned to Jace.

"He's in the infirmary, Iz. I … had to lock him in there." He spat the last part out in a rush. She didn't even notice the bruise on the side of his face before she ran out of the room and towards the Infirmary. But Clary did.

She pulled out her stele immediately and started to draw an _Iratze_ on him. "Jace! Are you OK? What happened?" She knew a bruise wasn't usually a big deal, but this was Jace. He was very protective of his face. If someone managed to bruise him there, they likely hurt him elsewhere too.

He smiled at her as he sunk into the nearest chair. "If you don't mind, I'm just gonna wait till Izzy gets back to tell that story. She's going to be—" He was cut off by Izzy's shriek. He sighed and shook his head. "Here we go…."

"JACE! What did you do to my brother?!" Izzy stormed in and Jace knew that she was seconds away from grabbing her whip. She looked like she was ready to burn the world down.

"In my defense, he _did_ almost knock me out first."

* * *

So? I hope you're enjoying the story so far!

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	7. Chapter 7

At first, the three of them didn't know what to do. Usually, Magnus was the one they called in for these sort of situations. But obviously, that wasn't an option. So they did the next best thing and called Catarina. They were lucky; Magnus had her number in his phone. Otherwise, they would have had to go all the way over to Beth Israel to try to find her.

She looked up at the group of Shadowhunters with sadness in her eyes. She didn't say anything for a long moment. Everyone stared back at her expectantly.

"There's really not much I can do. Whoever did this, they are very powerful. More powerful than almost anyone else I've encountered. I really can't guess who. I don't even know what it is exactly that they've done." She dropped her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at their sad faces. But that just forced her to look at Magnus, which wasn't much better. She moved and sat down in the nearby chair and stared at the floor.

No one in the room spoke for a long time after that. The silence made the mood in the room even more sombre. Just as Jace was about to leave, Izzy spoke up.

"Someone has to have some idea. You said there can't be many people in the world who could do this. So who are they? Maybe we start a list, start investigating? We have to do _something_."

"The problem with very powerful people is that you often don't know who they are, just that they exist." They could all tell from her tone of voice that she really didn't want to talk about this.

"I just hate that there's someone out there who could do something like this and we don't even know who they are!" Isabelle was starting to get a little hysterical. Without saying anything, Jace walked over and gave her a strong hug. He knew that she was especially worried for Alec's sake, and that she was worrying about how Alec would react if they couldn't revive Magnus. Clary had already pulled out her phone to text Simon and was doing her best to ignore Izzy's silent sobbing, to give her some space.

"Whoever did this—" Jace started, but never finished. Because just then, a voice spoke up behind them.

"His name is Leviathan." They all looked back in shock at Alec. He was standing in the doorway to the room in a pair of pyjamas, rubbing his eyes. He looked kind of like a little kid early in the morning. Dazed and more than a little bleary. He was still supposed to be locked up in the Infirmary, but at that moment none of them really cared about how he had gotten out. Izzy ran over and threw her arms around him. "Don't ever scare us like that again!" He didn't say anything, but he hugged her back. Nodding his head towards Magnus in the bed, while managing not to look at him, Alec said "Thanks." Then he stalked over to Jace, who was still standing where Izzy had left him, and swiped his legs out from under him with his foot.

Jace landed on the floor with a loud thud. Everyone in the room stared at them in shock. Alec offered his hand to help him get up. Jace got up with a shrug. "I get it. I'm a jerk, you'll hate me forever, and etcetera. Glad to see you too." Alec only blinked in response.

Everyone froze as Alec walked over to the bed. His face was blank as he looked down at Magnus and he kept his arms stiffly at his sides. They all watched as he stood there silently, not moving, not speaking, barely even breathing. Maybe he would have sunk into the chair and stayed there for hours if Catarina wasn't there, but as she was, he just turned to walk out of the room. He had almost made it when he heard his least favorite voice on the planet behind him.

"Leaving so soon, Alexander?"

Leviathan was here.

* * *

Yes, I know that was short, due to aforementioned wrist problems. But Chapter 8 is on its way very soon! I wouldn't leave you with that cliffhanger for too long.

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	8. Chapter 8

"Alec?" asks Izzy. He knows, even before he sees Leviathan perched on the windowsill like a king in his throne, that no one else can see Leviathan. He decides to stare him down anyway. Very softly, as if from far away, he hears Izzy's voice. "Why is he glaring at the window?"

Leviathan seems to know that Alec has figured it out and smiles. "Smart boy. They can't hear me either, in case you were wondering."

"Of course not. I'm just going crazy." He barely noticed the four other people in the room exchanging worried glances. He had more important things to worry about. If his sanity was already going, how would he save Magnus?

"Oh no, I'm quite real. Obscenely powerful demon, remember? This is child's play for me." He sat there looking smug.

Of course. _It really isn't much more complicated than a glamour when it comes down to it,_ thought Alec with relief. Leviathan's smile faded as if he could read Alec's thoughts.

He spoke curtly. "Regardless. I'd like to get on with my business here and then move along. I detest Nephilim and would like to leave as soon as possible."

 _How is he even here? I thought the sacred ground was supposed to keep demons away?_ Alec took a deep breath and tried to keep his emotions in check. As long as he convinced himself that he felt nothing, everything would be OK. He could not afford to let his emotions get the better of him in this mess. It would spell disaster for sure. Still, he checked himself again. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like what came next.

"I am a little uncomfortable here, due to the holy ground, so I do hope you'll forgive me if I'm not as polite and charming as usual." Leviathan attempted a smile, but it looked more like a grimace to Alec. _So he does have a weakness!_ "No. I have preferences, that's all." Though Alec had not spoken aloud, Leviathan had responded. There was his proof then. Even his thoughts were no longer safe.

Leviathan smiled before continuing. "I no longer plan on killing Magnus," he began. Alec immediately forgot all about his plan to keep his emotions under control and nearly fell over with the wave of relief that washed over him. But Leviathan continued speaking. "Yet." Alec felt like his heart had plummeted to his stomach and then decided that wasn't far enough and migrated to his feet and then out into the floor. "I find your emotional struggles and intense pain far more amusing than Magnus' potential death, at this particular moment. But, I must admit you intrigue me, Alexander Lightwood. I've never quite met a Nephilim quite like you. In fact, I haven't ever met one I haven't killed almost immediately, so you must understand my curiosity. But I shall get to the point. I've decided to revive Magnus if, and only if, I find you worthy." He leaned back and paused to let his words sink in. "But I highly doubt that a Nephilim, even one as interesting as you, can cause anything more than utter destruction everywhere you go. Observe." Leviathan gestured at the people in the room.

Alec was shocked as he brought his awareness back to the room around him. Izzy looked like she was on the verge of tears, Jace was scowling at him and Clary was rubbing her arm absentmindedly as if she'd been pinched. Catarina was gone.

"You pushed them all away while focused on me. You didn't even know you were doing it. Your destructive tendencies took over. You Nephilim think you are saviours, but all you do is burn and kill and destroy. Not to say that you and I are not the same in this regard. But at least I accept my role as a force of darkness. You, the Clave, are under the delusion that you are serving the light. Are you different from the rest? Magnus' life might depend on it." As soon as he finished talking, he started to fade away. The last thing to go was his signature sneer. _Just like the freaking Cheshire cat,_ he thought. Alec let a single tear slide down his cheek before bottling his emotions up again.

Alec looked at Magnus in the bed. He looked so _peaceful_ there. Like he was just taking a nap. As he started walking over to the bed, he didn't notice Jace step in front of him until he walked right into him. The hand on his shoulder was meant to move him away from the bed and away from more heartbreak. He knew that, he knew that Jace was probably right. But he couldn't just walk away from Magnus. His eyes met Jace's gold ones in a silent plea. After a moment, he seemed to understand and moved to leave the room. Alec heard the two girls follow him, but most of his attention was on Magnus. Even lying here, close to death, Magnus was so vibrant. So … alive. It was hard to believe he almost wasn't. Leaning down, he kissed Magnus on the forehead and whispered to him.

"I _will_ save you."

He just had to figure out how.

* * *

Sorry again for the short chapters. Um, so Chapter 9 is taking longer than expected. Nano has not been kind to me this year, free time wise. If you feel like it, a review would be greatly appreciated!

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	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** I made this one a bit longer for you guys this time. Happy reading!

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Clary, Jace, Isabelle and Simon were all in the library. They were supposed to be meeting to discuss what they were going to do next, but no one was saying anything. Isabelle was curled up in Simon's arms, as he gently ran his hands down her hair. Clary was just leaning on Jace's shoulder while he stared out into the room, thoughts racing through his mind. None of them really wanted to start talking, because to talk about it would mean admitting it was real.

Clary asked Jace quietly what he had done with Alec. She hoped Izzy couldn't hear them. Jace let out a slow sigh. "He's … in a closet." He gave a quick glance towards Izzy before continuing. It didn't seem like she was paying attention to them. Simon was whispering something in her ear. "I had to find a room fast that had no windows in it. And obviously he'd found a way out of the Infirmary, so I had to pick somewhere else. I put a locking rune on the door this time, though. I forgot to take away his stele last time." They both looked at Izzy as she finally spoke up.

"What are we going to do about this situation?" Isabelle asked the group. "Magnus is lying nearly dead in our infirmary and we can't even figure out what's wrong!" Isabelle's eyes were getting teary. Clary had never seen Izzy so worried about Magnus before. But it was completely understandable. They were all worried for Magnus. _What if he never wakes up?_ Clary thought. She'd grown rather fond of him over time and she'd be heartbroken if anything were to happen to him. "And what about Alec? We can't just keep locking him up. By the way, where did you put him, Jace?"

Jace tried not to look guilty. "In a room, with a locking rune on the exits." His voice was carefully free of any inflection. Isabelle's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, but she let it go. Now was not the time to argue, she decided. That would come later.

"Is there no way of making Magnus even a little bit better?" asked Simon. Clary had brought him up to speed on the situation as soon as he'd arrived.

Isabelle sighed. "Catarina says there isn't. Not without more information. The person's name isn't enough. She said she's working on it, though."

"Well, let's just come up with a different plan. Preferably one that involves demon-killing. But that's negotiable." They all laughed at Jace's attempt to lighten the mood, but none of them were feeling very happy.

 **…**

When Alec woke up, he found himself on a makeshift bed of blankets and pillows in what appeared to be a large linen closet. Grumbling to himself, he went to try the door. Locked, just as he'd thought. He reached into his pocket for his stele, but it wasn't there.

"Shit." He knew they were just trying to help, but he couldn't help but get mad at them for trying to stop him like this. The door didn't budge an inch when he rammed into it, even with a bit of a running start. _There must be a locking rune on it, then,_ he thought. Of course, he had other tricks up his sleeve. He scanned the walls until he found what he was looking for. Perfect.

As he crawled through the dark space, Alec was glad for Magnus' peculiar fondness for mundane culture. Without it, he might never have seen the countless action movies where the hero escapes through the vents. It was, however, a lot harder than they made it seem. And Alec felt like he might choke on all the dust he'd inhaled. _It's all worth it,_ he told himself as he scooted further along the vent. _If it helps me save Magnus,_ _I'd do this 100 times over._

By looking out the outtake vents that appeared every so often, he realized he was already in the residential wing and heading in the direction of his bedroom. The fact that the ventilation system hadn't collapsed under his weight surprised him, but he wasn't going to question his good luck. Right now, this was likely the easiest way for him to move around without being seen. That was critical. No one could know that he was out. It would only make things worse.

Finally, he was above his bedroom. Unfortunately, the vent that led into his room was at too awkward of an angle for him to get out. With a groan, he took off his sweater and squirmed around until he'd placed it under his feet. No sense alerting everyone in the Institute to his presence with a loud clang. He took a deep breath, and then kicked his foot through the vent. He clung onto the most solid part of the vent with one arm and managed to catch the biggest of the falling pieces of metal with the other. The vents ran through the walls, not the ceiling, so he was now behind a wall to his room. A few pieces of debris hit the floor, but the sound wasn't loud enough for anyone more than a few doors away to hear. He hoped.

Alec waited behind the wall for 5 minutes. If someone had heard him, they would have been in his room by now. The wall to his room was pretty flimsy so he knew he could just kick his way through. He tried to estimate where his dresser was and then kicked through. The drywall gave easily under his foot. The wood of the dresser? Not so much. Alec would have smiled on any other occasion. _Right on the mark, as usual_ , he told himself. The hole was hidden perfectly behind his dresser. Alec quickly pushed it out of the way and stepped out. He pulled on his battle gear and looked around for his stele. Whoever had taken it from him had just put it back in here. It was lying on the bed. He brushed the last of the dust from his hair as he tried to make the room look as normal as possible. He pushed all the wall dust back into the hole before dragging the dresser back against the wall, hiding the hole completely. Time to go.

Alec ran through the Institute as fast as he dared. He heard voices coming from the library, so he slowed down as he crept past. He could hear them talking about him as he walked past. Someone said "Maybe we should fortify the Infirmary with runes, just in case?" before creeping out of earshot. Alec felt bad about leaving them like this, but he couldn't allow any of them to come along. They were already in enough danger because of him. He wasn't about to let them endanger themselves any more than he already had. _They're better off without me around, anyway. Can't they see that?_

 ** _…_**

The conversation wasn't going anywhere. They were all just bringing up ideas and then telling each other they were stupid. Clary looked confused all of a sudden.

"What's wrong?" Jace asked.

"No, I just thought I'd heard something." They all sat quietly for a minute or two. "I think I just imagined it. It's gone now."

Simon looked panicked. "Was it coming from the Infirmary?" Despite their less than friendly beginning, Simon had grown to like Alec. And Magnus too, though he still partially blamed him for being turned into a rat. Regardless, he'd hate for anything to happen to him. Well, anything worse than what had already happened to him, of course.

Clary shook her head. "I'm pretty sure it was just the usual creaks and groans of the Institute. Though maybe we should fortify the Infirmary, just in case?" She was worried. Magnus was barely breathing at this point. If this 'Leviathan' person decided to come and try to finish what he'd started, it wouldn't take much. Not much at all. And then there was another thing.

"Why has Alec been acting so … out-of-character lately? I mean, other than the obvious, of course. But he's never been like this before. At least, not that I've seen." She glanced at Izzy for confirmation. Izzy nodded. They both looked at Jace. He'd borne the brunt of Alec's sudden change of character. He just shrugged.

At first, he just shrugged. "He kept starting to tell me something in the cave, but he kept stopping himself. He did say 'It's better that way' when he refused to come back. I don't know if that means anything to you."

Simon sighed. "Maybe we should just talk to him. It would be faster than trying to guess what's bugging him, right?"

"I agree." Clary stood up as she said this. Jace grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.

"I'll go grab him. Don't want to freak him out by having all of us there, surrounding him." Clary didn't understand at first, but then she saw his eyes flicker to Izzy for a millisecond. He didn't want her to know he was in a closet. Clary nodded as Jace stood up and walked out. The three of them sat in silence, staring at each other. Jace came back a few seconds later, a wild look in his eyes.

"He's gone."

"What do you mean, _gone?"_ Izzy looked like she was ready to tackle Jace.

"Calm down. I'm sure if we look for him, we'll find him very quickly. He can't have gotten far, not if he was trying to be quiet. Alec mentioned something about a friend of Magnus' that lives in Brooklyn earlier today. It's not much, but it's a start. You guys go look for him there and I'll check to see if Alec left any traces here. "

"Why do we all have to go? Shouldn't it be an even split?" This was Simon's input. It annoyed Jace. It complicated things. He came up with a quick reply on the spot.

"No. What if you guys think of more places to search while you're out? It makes more sense to send out more people. In fact, Clary, why don't you go find Catarina right away?" They all nodded and headed out the door to the elevator.

Jace felt a little bad for lying to them, but it'd be easier to follow Alec on his own. Besides, the tracking rune he'd put on Alec after their fight would make it easy to find him. He glanced down the hall to check that the others were gone. With a sigh, he ran out the door. Why did Alec have to make things so complicated?

* * *

Hey! Thanks so much for all the reviews, you guys are so nice!

 _EllaBlackrose:_ I'm glad you like it! Yeah, I'm not being very nice to Alec, am I? *evil grin*

 _Guest:_ Well, I hope this was soon enough for you ... Maybe? And I'll have another chapter up in a week or so at the most, I promise.

 _TheArkAngel_ : That made me so happy, thank you so much! Hope you enjoyed this chapter :D

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(P.S. I finished NaNo, so now I have more time to spend on this story!)


	10. Chapter 10

As night fell over the city, Alec was thankful for the cloudless sky. There were other ways of getting where he wanted to go, but this was by far the easiest. Walking through Central Park, he tried to push down the growing uneasiness in his stomach. _Get over it,_ he told himself. _I bet Jace wasn't nervous the last time he did this._ Thinking of Jace led to thinking of Izzy and Clary and everyone else who was probably worried sick about him. He pushed the thought away. It was no use dwelling on things that couldn't be changed.

The moon's reflection was clear in the pond in front of him. He was standing in the middle, the water up just past his ankles. The fish in the pond moved quickly away from him. He shivered, the water was _cold._ Alec took one last glance around to make sure he wasn't being followed, and then turned around and stepped backwards into the moon's reflection in Turtle Pond. It was time to go to the Seelie Court.

He landed on his feet on the hard packed dirt without stumbling. Water ran down his back. His clothes were soaked through, and they weighed a ton. He pushed his wet hair back from his face as he waited for someone to come for him. He only had to wait a few moments before Kaelie Whitewillow, the Queen's maidservant and also the fey representative on the Council, came through the curtain of vines to his left. She brought a very faint smell of flowers with her. He tried not to shiver. He'd forgotten how cold it was down here.

"You have a lot of audacity coming here, Nephilim." Her voice was bitter. The fey did not forget, and they rarely forgave. The sanctions placed upon them at the end of the war had hardened their hatred of the Clave. "What is your business here?"

"I wish to ask your Queen a question." He kept his eyes downcast and his voice reverent. It would not be easy to convince the Seelie Queen to help him.

"This is not something to be taken lightly. The Queen is not to be used as a simple search tool!" She didn't shout, but her anger was clear.

"I am aware. I am also aware this … favour will not be free. I still stand by my request." The formal words felt foreign coming out of his mouth, but he knew that the Fey appreciated formality from their guests. Or rather, in Alec's case, their unexpected visitors.

Kaelie let out a short, angry sigh. "Very well. Follow me." Kaelie led him out through the curtain of vines. He paid no attention to his surroundings, even though it might be important in the future. His mind was focused only on how to get what he needed at the least cost to him. The uneasy feeling in his stomach from earlier returned. He knew he would likely leave with the information he wanted, but at what cost?

Kaelie led him through another set of vine curtains. Alec found himself in a plain chamber whose walls were covered with pale fabric. Gentle lights bobbed inside glass jars around the room. The Queen herself sat on a low couch. Her eyebrows arched up when she saw Alec walk in behind Kaelie.

"He says he has a question for you, my Queen." She said with a bow. "He is willing to pay your price." Alec stiffened at this. He hadn't agreed to any price, just said that he expected one. Hopefully, the Queen wouldn't interpret Kaelie's statement the wrong way. The Queen nodded and Kaelie left the room though Alec doubted she'd gone any further than just outside the curtain.

"My lady," he said with a slight bow. _Breathe_ , he told himself.

"I would not have expected any Nephilim to come here of their own volition anytime soon, in light of our less-than-friendly past. Your visit intrigues me, Alexander Lightwood. What could be so important that you'd risk my anger?"

"I have but a simple question for you, my lady. Though you may not like the subject matter." This was where it got tricky. The Queen was looking at him with an expression that told him to continue speaking. Alec figured it was best just to get this over with. " I wish to know the way into Leviathan's realm."

Alec was expecting the Queen's sharp intake of breath, and the look of anger that slowly settled on her face. The Clave's sanctions had been placed on the Seelie Court in part because of the assistance she gave to Sebastian in getting to Edom. To imply that she knew how to enter other demon realms and give that information to a Shadowhunter, well, it was risky to say the least.

"I've known that the Nephilim can be bold but this …" She paused. "What is your explanation for this line of questioning?"

"I am sorry if I offended you with my question. I simply could not think of another way of getting this information. If I may speak frankly?" The Queen nodded slowly. She did not bother to hide her curiosity. "It is for Magnus, my lady. He is very sick and the only way to cure him is through Leviathan's realm."

"I don't much like the idea of helping any Nephilim right now, to be frank. Or a warlock, for that matter." The Queen's voice held a tone of finality that made Alec uneasy and afraid.

Alec took a deep breath to calm his nerves.". "I don't wish to sound pushy, but I would like to remind you that Magnus was the only representative that stood with the Seelie Court during deliberations of the sanctions." That was it. That was his trump card. If that couldn't convince the Queen, it was likely that nothing could. The Queen did not speak for a few moments. Alec felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. The Queen held the key to everything right now. With one word, she could potentially shatter all of his hope of saving Magnus.

Finally, she spoke. "I will answer your question. It will cost you just one small favour to be called in at any given moment in the future." Alec tried not to gape. That was a very steep price. She could ask for anything. Even …

"I will agree if you can concede that I will not have to harm any of my loved ones as part of this favour."

The Queen smiled. It was not a comforting smile. It was all harsh angles and promises of pain and malice. "Very well, Lightwood. You will not have to _directly_ harm anyone you care for." Reluctantly, he agreed. There was no other way. Alec didn't miss the Queen's delighted look as she told him what he had come for. He couldn't help wondering if it was a huge mistake to agree to her terms.

 **…**

It was nearly midnight as Jace arrived. During the day, this part of the city was crowded with tourists but now in the dead of night, it was mostly empty. As empty as anywhere could be in New York. He had no idea why Alec would have come here. The famous Apple store was in front of him, its surface glittering in the little light there was. He spotted Alec across the square from him. Alec had obviously already seen Jace because he was glaring right at him. Jace was in front of him in just a few seconds. His Parabatai didn't look angry to Jace from this distance. If anything, he looked... scared?

"What are you doing here?" asked Alec. His voice was soft and expressionless. To Jace, he sounded like he'd given up. _Good_ , thought Jace. _He should know he can't get away from me that easily._

"Right now? Standing, mostly." He chuckled when he saw Alec's glare. "At least, you still have the same attitude to my sense of humour." Jace got serious. "So much else about you has changed."

"What—" Alec cut himself off. He remembered that he shouldn't be encouraging Jace right now. But he'd already spoken and Jace knew him too well.

"What do I mean? Well, let's see." Jace tone suddenly got more bitter. "You've run away, nearly beat me up, and hurt Izzy, Clary, Simon and I while in your weird little trance. That's not different to you? The Alec I know would never do anything to hurt us. Never. So you're going to tell me what's going on and you're going to tell me right now."

Alec sighed. His voice was whisper quiet. "I—I was trying to protect you. All of you."

"You have a funny way of protecting." Jace pushed up his sleeve and showed Alec a bruise from their fight. Alec flinched and sunk into a nearby chair.

"You don't understand. You couldn't. You didn't see his face when I— I was trying to protect you from Leviathan, can't you see that?"

"Protect us from Leviathan? Why? What makes you think he even cares about what happens to us?"

Alec ran a shaky hand through his hair. "Not you. Me. I saw it in his eyes, the moment I … asked him not to kill Magnus." He was not going to tell Jace about how he'd begged. "In that moment, I could tell he was no longer interested in Magnus at all. Just me. I think I … intrigued him or something. But you have to understand. He's a demon, he lives off of pain. My pain mostly, right now. So, it would certainly suit his interests to put me in as much pain as possible. That's why." He hoped he wouldn't have to spell it out for Jace. Just telling him this much was hard. He watched as the realization settled on Jace's face.

"Oh. You're worried that he'll come for us, to get... a reaction out of you."

Alec picked at a fingernail absentmindedly. "Yeah, well, it worked once, didn't it?" He let out a short, bitter laugh. "I wasn't in a trance when I pushed you guys away. I was talking to Leviathan and I was completely aware of what I was doing. I was trying to convince him that in my anger and determination, I no longer cared if I hurt you or not." He looked away from Jace at the ground. He mumbled the rest. "Whatever. It's not like you actually care about my fears right now. You're not going anywhere, are you?"

"No," said Jace sadly. "As much as I'd like to do whatever would make you feel better right now, I can't do that."

"Fine. Then you can help me. "Alec got up from the chair with a determined look on his face. It was then that he realized that Alec was in battle gear and he had his bow and arrows on his back. "We're going to Invid."

"Where?" asked Jace. He wasn't familiar with the name.

"Leviathan's realm." said Alec, with a slight smile. "You might even enjoy this part. It involves killing some demons. Just follow my lead. And stay close. We'll only have a few moments."

Jace had no idea what was going on, but he trusted his Parabatai with his life. And as he ran after him, Jace knew Alec felt the same.

* * *

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

TheArkAngel: I'm not done being mean to him yet! *evil laugh*

Guest: I appreciate the enthusiasm!

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.(' ') (See you next Monday!)  
(")(")


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** I feel like as this story has gone on, I've gotten a much better grasp of the story. So I've gone back and updated many of the chapters. Almost all of them. The only change that you'll likely actually notice though is the fact that I've _completely changed_ Chapter 1. I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it anymore. If you liked it, I'm uploading it as a separate one-shot, so it's not gone forever. That's all for now, happy reading!

* * *

 _Alec must have made a mistake_ , thought Jace. This was all wrong.

"What in the name of—" Alec never finished his sentence as he looked around in wonder and bewilderment. His eyebrows furrowed.

"This doesn't seem right." Jace said, but that was an understatement. The two Parabatai had gone from midnight at 5th and east 59th in New York to...Suburbia? Alec and Jace were standing in the middle of what seemed to be a neighborhood street. All the houses were mid-sized and very similar to one another. They had front lawns surrounded by white picket fences. Some of the lawns had toys strewn about them. Others had rocking chairs on their porches and others still had garden arrangements that seemed to have been done by professionals. Everything was immaculately clean and in perfect order. There was no rust on the lawn mowers, no cracks in the plastic of the children's toys. Sunlight beat down on their shoulders, neither too little nor too much. The only thing off about this place was that there were no people anywhere. Jace was in the process of trying to figure out where they were when he heard Alec sigh.

"Of course," he said with a slight shake of his head. "This makes sense."

"It makes sense? Are you feeling alright, Alec? A little sick perhaps? I'm just wondering because if you aren't sick, I don't see how this makes sense."

"Leviathan is a Prince of Hell, Jace. Think. What do you know about them? Think back to our lessons."

"Well, Princes of Hell are the Fati, the original angels that fell from heaven. They each rule over their own realm. They are said to tempt people through one of the 'deadly' sins or something like that. But why—" Alec could see the thought occur to him. "What, exactly, is Leviathan's sin?"

"Envy."

"Ah. So he's just keeping up with the Jones', then. I suppose all of this does make sense. For a second, I thought you might have been wrong." Alec paled a little. Jace didn't miss it. There was one thing that had been bothering him anyway. "How _did_ you know, by the way?"

"Know what?" Alec tried to feign indifference as he looked around. He decided to walk over to the door closest to him. Jace followed him up the path. The door was locked.

"Don't play dumb. You knew that if you held onto a demon that you'd just killed right before they disappeared back into their own realm that you'd go with them. Let's call it the piggyback theory." Alec had to turn away to hide his incredulous look. Even when Jace was being serious, he managed to be funny. "You knew that Leviathan was not fond of letting demons into his realm and you knew that Vetis demons were the only exception because of their love of shiny things, which I guess counts as some sort of messed up form of envy. So you went to the Apple store where you apparently just knew the reflections from glass and metal would attract some Vetis demons. That's an awful lot of stuff for you to know that isn't common Clave knowledge."

Alec was glad he'd already turned to face away from Jace. "I must have read about the … uh, piggyback theory somewhere."

Jace wasn't convinced. "Even if I accepted that lame excuse, that doesn't explain all of it. Let's say you're not lying and you did read about that in a book somewhere in our library. What about the rest of it?"

"Well, I knew that he was the Prince of Envy, so to speak, so the Vetis demons were the obvious choice, for the reason you pointed out, and the Apple store was just my best guess." The last part, at least, was true. Jace stared at Alec for a moment. He was just about to speak again when Alec's eyebrows furrowed.

"Look behind you, Jace."

Jace scoffed. "Do you really think I'll fall for that? I know what's behind me. An uncannily well-kept house with locked doors. Stay on subject."

"That's just it. The door isn't locked. It just swung open." Jace whirled around to face the house. Alec was telling the truth. The door _was_ open. Jace noticed that Alec had started to walk towards the house, so he followed just a few steps behind him. Just as Alec arrived at the fence, the door to the house next door also swings open. Both of them froze.

"Let's wait and see if anymore open." They stood out there for about a minute. Nothing happened. The only thing that moved was the leaves of the trees in the wind. "I guess it's just these two then." Jace took one last look down the street before following Alec into the house. Now that he knew they were in Leviathan's realm, Invid, the lack of people made sense. Jace was so captivated by the weirdness of the outside that he walked into Alec, who had stopped just inside the doorway.

"What is it?" Jace asked. Alec didn't say anything. At first glance, the house looked like any other. Carpets, decorations, stairs. Two doorways on either side. There were even pictures on the wall. Jace took a step towards the nearest picture and froze when he saw what it was. It was a picture of Alec and Magnus, their arms around each other. He looked back at Alec. "How is this possible?"

"I don't know," said Alec slowly. "There's another one, of me and you on the wall over on that side." He pointed to a picture frame to the left. It was a picture of the two of them practicing together. "It's almost as if this is my house or something. Let's look around?" Alec didn't wait for him to answer, just walked through the closest doorway. The whole floor had signs of belonging to Alec. There was an extra set of arrows in one corner of the living room and endless gray sweaters hung up in one of the closets near the door. There were more pictures, though some of them seemed to belong to Magnus. Alec tried to ignore those.

A creak from upstairs put them both on high alert. They both whipped out their weapons. All Jace had with him was a dagger. He'd left his Seraph blade at the Institute. He hadn't thought he'd need it at the time.

"I don't think creaking houses fits into this image of perfection that he's obviously going for here." whispered Jace.

"Neither do I." They crept carefully back towards the door. The creaking continued and it was clear now that it was moving towards the staircase in front of the door.

Alec had thought that the pictures of him were the most shocking thing about this house. He was wrong. The most shocking thing, the one that made him almost faint, was coming down the stairs right in front of him. He dropped his bow and took a shaky step forward.

"Magnus?"


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I'm sorry for leaving you with that cliffhanger. I didn't mean to be so mean, I just didn't have anywhere else I could end that chapter since I hadn't written anything beyond that yet and I'd already taken far too long with this chapter.

* * *

The house next door—the one whose door had swung open by itself—apparently belonged to Jace. There weren't many pictures in that house, but there were other signs that the house was supposed to be his. An exact copy of his favorite jacket slung over a chair, his favorite books and a brush with a few strands of Clary's hair. _Which is where the problems begin_ , thought Alec to himself as he sat on the couch trying not to look at who he knew he eventually would. The couch was a sensible brown, something Alec would have chosen. Not like the flashy blue side tables or the strange knotted curtains. Those were things that practically screamed Magnus. He did his best not to look at those either. So he ended up studying the fabric of the couch.

"Alec." The low and familiar voice came again from the corner of the room. Alec sighed and gave in, looking towards Magnus. He'd reached his limit. Alec could only resist his voice for so long.

"What?" he asked Magnus, his voice flat and uninterested.

Magnus looked angry. "Why are you treating me like this? I thought you'd be overjoyed that I was okay But instead, you give me the silent treatment, like some stubborn child." Alec bristled a little at that. He hated when anyone said anything that pointed out their age difference. It just made him think of things he didn't ever want to think about.

"You're not real, Mag— You're not real. You're a figment of my imagination."

Magnus scoffed at this. "Jace saw me. So did Clary." He sat down across from Alec on the couch.

Clary had appeared just a little while after Magnus did. Clary told them that she'd been skeptical of Jace's instructions, so she'd hung around outside the Institute and followed Jace when he left. It was just luck that she'd seen Alec and Jace grab onto the Vetis demon as it died and they disappeared. Clary copied them, and there she was. Stuck in Leviathan's realm just like them. Clary and Jace had long since retreated to Jace's house. Alec could hear music and laughter floating out of an open window from that house and scowled. It wasn't fair that they got to be happy and carefree while he was stuck dealing with this ... fake Magnus. The least they could do was come over and offer him some support. But no, they would apparently rather rub the fact that they were together and happy in Alec's face.

He'd forgotten that Magnus had said anything until he spoke again. "Are you ignoring me again?"

"No, I just got distracted by the racket they're making over there." He scowled towards the window.

Magnus smiled. "Distracted from me? There was a time I thought that to be impossible."

Alec merely shrugged as he turned away. It was easier when he wasn't looking at him. "Maybe. But you're not really Magnus, so it's not relevant, is it?"

Magnus let out a frustrated sigh before he could stop himself. "You keep saying that. What do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid. What reason could Leviathan have for curing you? Because he found me worthy?" Alec let out a short, sharp laugh. He was anything but worthy. "No, a much more likely explanation is that you're a creation made by Leviathan to mislead me. Or slow me down. Or some other goal that I can't be bothered to figure out. "

Magnus was silent for a minute. Alec resisted the urge to turn around to face him. Silence could be used as a weapon, but only if you let it. So he pretended the silence didn't unsettle him.

"Alec ... Wouldn't you be able to tell if it wasn't really me?" He reached over and turned Alec towards him. Alec stared at him for a few moments before answering.

"No." It was a lie, though. Alec _could_ tell, that was the problem. There was something that he couldn't quite name that bothered him about this Magnus. But if he told him that he could tell the difference, there was no doubt that this fake Magnus would try to make him doubt his intuition. It's not like he had any proof. It probably wouldn't even take that much. The thought scared him. Could he really be convinced that this imposter was really Magnus? He sighed. It was likely. If he gave the thought a foothold in his mind, he wouldn't be strong enough to fight off Leviathan's illusion.

And yet, for an illusion, this Magnus was surprisingly realistic. Alec saw the flash of hurt in his eyes before he managed to cover it up. He felt his tiny shift away from him on the couch. He heard the calm, clinical tone in this Magnus' voice when he spoke next.

"I don't believe you. But I can see that I'm not getting anywhere with this." As Magnus walked out of the room, Alec heard the song change and Clary's answering squeal of delight from next door. Alec got up and stormed to the door. Enough was enough. But he froze with his hand on the doorknob.

 _No_ , he told himself. _I'm not going to give in and go crawling over there like a little baby. I've got to be better than that. When they see how rude they're being, they can come over here and apologize by themselves. I won't give Jace the satisfaction of seeing me like this, acting like a petulant child while he's calm and collected._

He went back to the couch and picked up a book. The fake Magnus was nowhere to be seen. Alec relaxed a little and tried to read the book while he waited for Jace and Clary to come over.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** It's my birthday today and I don't want to feel bad about making you wait for another chapter so I'm posting this chapter now and I'll update it once my lovely beta (shoutout to CorinBlue for being awesome) has had a chance to go through it for me. Sound good?

* * *

Jace was pacing. It wasn't really that unusual for him, but Clary's seeming lack of concern did unsettle him. He didn't say anything, though. He had said something ten minutes ago and it had gotten him nowhere. He could see Clary, just sitting on the edge of the couch's armrest. Her hair was out and kind of messy and it reminded Jace of a wildfire. Her arms were crossed but, she didn't look mad, not exactly. Exasperated was more like it.

"Stop that." She said suddenly, and Jace froze.

"Stop what? Pacing?" He hadn't thought it was bothering her.

"No. Glancing at me every two seconds. I don't know why you're doing it and it's getting annoying." Clary didn't seem to make any effort to conceal just how annoyed she was from her voice.

"Sorry." He didn't promise to stop, though. Likely he'd do it again without realizing. If they were just going to sit in this house, all tense like this, he wasn't going to be able to stay still for long. He briefly considered finding somewhere to do a quick training session. Except, he wasn't used to training alone and he doubted that Clary was really feeling up to it. He opened his mouth to speak, but Clary cut him off.

"Jace." She sounded like she was telling off a child. As if she could tell him what to do. Jace had half a mind to just ignore Clary go over and ask Alec to train with him. He started heading towards the door.

"Jace, you really shouldn't." She didn't get up, as if she was confident in the fact that she could get him to stop with just her words. Or maybe because she realized she wasn't much of an obstacle physically.

"You keep saying that. That I shouldn't go over to Alec's house." Alec's house. The phrase felt foreign and comfortable at the same time. The thought disturbed Jace, the idea that he was already getting this comfortable in a demon realm. "I still don't get it."

Clary sighed and shook her head as she got up and walked towards him. "Listen. Do you hear that?" Jace sighed. He heard it now and he heard it when Clary had brought it up in the first place when they'd started this argument. Music. Loud music, that seemed to be coming from Alec's house. And faintly, the sound of someone singing along, just slightly off tune and another person laughing. "They're having fun. You saw Alec before, when he thought that he might have lost Magnus forever. Give them some time together. You barging in and talking about who-knows-what is probably not very welcome right now. "

"That 'who-knows-what', as you call it, is figuring out how we're going to get home. I need to talk to Alec, see if he has a plan. He's more likely than me to figure that out." _He's always been the more logical one, stopping me from acting on my craziest ideas. He probably came with a plan to get out ahead of time, unlike me, who just followed him here with no questions asked and no plan to speak of. As usual._

But the sounds of the music continued to float in the window and Jace sat down on the stairs by the door with a sigh. Clary walked over and sat next to him with a smile. She leaned her head on his shoulder as she spoke.

"Besides, is it really so bad here? There's this nice house on this nice street. There's even a pool in the backyard. If I'm honest, I'm not in a huge rush to get back." She continued quickly upon seeing Jace's shocked face. "I'm not saying I'd like to stay forever, just that as far as demon realms go, this is one I don't mind spending some time in. And having a whole house to ourselves is … nice, to say the least. And who knows, maybe we can't even leave here until Leviathan decides to send us home. All the planning in the world might be useless." This didn't quite seem like the sort of thing that Clary would usually say. But Jace knew that his judgment was clouded because he wasn't exactly impartial in this case. And they'd never quite been in a situation like this, not even in Edom, really. Only in the last moments, and they hadn't really had time to do any planning then. Just gut reactions. Yes or no, stay or go.

Right now, he wanted to go. That was his gut reaction. But Clary's face was just inches away from his; she'd turned to face him at some point. Jace knew he should argue with her. He still felt like going over was a better option than staying there, in theory. But staying also had certain benefits that were hard to ignore as he looked into her brilliant green eyes. They looked slightly different somehow, more vivid here in Invid than usual. Even though he was still annoyed, he didn't protest as she wrapped her arms around his neck. And then they were kissing. Not their usual passionate, overwhelming kisses. This one started off gentle, comforting. Jace felt a warmth spread all over his body as he pulled Clary closer to him. One of her hands had made their way to his hair and the other pulled at his shirt. Then he remembered. It took an impossible amount of restraint, but he pulled away. He was not going to let Clary smooth over this whole disagreement with kissing, as appealing as the idea was to him.

He stood up. "I'm going. We can't wait here twiddling our thumbs while we wait for Leviathan to come here and finish us off. Because when he does show up, and he will, it won't be to send us home."

"How can you be so sure?" Clary asked, clearly frustrated now. "Technically, I have just as much experience in demon realms as you, and I don't think that's the only possibility. I think it's much more likely that Leviathan doesn't care about us at all. Not unless we're experiencing some sort of negative emotions." She paused, considering her next words before speaking. "Kind of like yours right now, for example." Jace realized she had a point. The longer he worked himself up, the less likely it was that Leviathan would let them go. It annoyed him that she'd figured that out before him.

"Alright. I'm sorry." It was a false apology, but Clary either didn't notice or if she did, she let it go. She gave Jace a hug and then pulled back with a smile. She didn't step back. Instead, she looked right into his eyes. All of his surroundings seemed to fade away as he looked at her.

The loud knock at the door startled them and they jumped away from each other. Clary let out a little sigh as Jace went to answer the door.

 _Who is knocking on the door anyway? I thought we were the only ones here,_ Jace wondered. He noticed just a second too late that the music had stopped, as he opened up the door to see Alec standing in front of him. A very angry Alec, at that.

* * *

I'd love it if you'd leave me a review! I'd love to get some critiques, so that I can improve my writing.

Speaking of reviews (I've been behind on this, sorry):

StarlightOracle (Ch.10) - I figured I should be a little nice to poor Alec. Just a little. Oh, and thanks for sticking around and reviewing more than once! Makes me happy :)

TheArkAngel (Ch.11) - Not telling! P.S. I smile every time I see your name in the reviews :D

Guest (Ch.11) - I am genuinely sorry about that. I'll try not to do it again. By the way, just wondering if this is the same person each time?

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	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Once a week is obviously not a realistic goal for me anymore. Things basically fell apart for awhile and ..yeah. I will do my best and update as often as I can. From now on, info on when chapters are coming, etc. will be in my bio.

This chapter is dedicated to the lovely TheArkAngel, who pushed me to write what might be my longest chapter to date!

* * *

Jace didn't know how to react. Just seconds ago, he'd heard Alec and Magnus laughing and having fun and now Alec was standing in front of him, arms crossed and glaring. He didn't even acknowledge Clary behind him.

It didn't seem like Alec was going to say anything anytime soon, so Jace decided to speak up. "What's wrong, Alec?"

Alec made a derisive-sounding snort. "What's wrong? Oh, nothing really. We're just stuck in a demon realm where we could die at any moment with some stupid illusion that could, for all we know, be leading us to our doom. That's all." His voice was eerily calm, made all the more creepy by the fact that Jace could still see the fury etched on his face. He turned back to Clary for support, but she was gone.

"Ok, yes, I know that. Anything else bothering you in particular? Because I don't understand why you're so mad about it all of a sudden, and why you seem to be mad at me in particular." Jace knew as soon as he'd finished speaking that it was the wrong thing to say. He could see it on Alec's face, which he had thought could not get any more furious. He was wrong.

"Oh, really? You know that already? It sure doesn't look seem like it! You're over here laughing and having loads of fun with Clary while I'm stuck in that stupid house dealing with an imposter and worrying about how we're going to do what we came here for and then get home safely! It's like you don't even care!"

"What the hell are you talking about, Alec? " Jace's voice was rising as well. He didn't like being accused of things that weren't true. Especially because he'd been arguing with Clary for most of the time. "You seemed to be perfectly happy here until a few seconds ago when you barged in here spewing nonsense! Why the hell do you think I'm having fun?" If Clary could hear them shouting, she didn't come over to back him up. Alec was being ridiculous. Jace figured he'd realized he'd come here to blame him for something so he could feel better about all the time he'd wasted hanging out with Magnus.

"I could hear you and Clary in here from the other house. Playing music and having fun and whatever. While I was sitting there trying to figure out the solution to this mess!"

"That's such a stupid lie, Alec. I could hear you and Magnus having fun right next door to us while WE were sitting here debating if we should come over and start talking strategy! You're the one playing music and having fun, and then you try to put it on me? Who are you trying to fool?" Jace took a deep breath, but it did nothing to calm him. He'd do anything for his parabatai, which is why it angered him so much to be accused of doing the opposite. "I'm not sure what exactly you are trying to accomplish here, but it's not going to work. I'm not just going to sit here and just accept all the crap you're accusing of. Wrongly accusing me of, I might add." It was almost ironic, Jace admitted to himself, that Alec had come over here accusing Jace of what he wished were true, that he and Clary weren't arguing and were having as much fun as Magnus and Alec had been. But they weren't and the injustice of it fed into his anger. Why should they be happy right now? There was almost nothing to be happy about, finding Magnus aside. But it didn't make sense to argue with him at the moment. _Maybe I should just try and change the subject?_ thought Jace.

"And on top of it all, you're not even making sense," Jace continued. "What's this imposter nonsense you keep going on about?" He cringed as he finished. So much for changing the subject to diffuse the situation. He was pretty sure he'd just made it worse. Great. Just another thing he'd messed up today.

Alec just stared at him for a moment. The anger had mostly left his face at this point. He just looked exasperated now. "Magnus, Jace. Magnus is the imposter. As in, it's not really Magnus. He's just an illusion, probably one of Leviathan's. So you see why your little story doesn't make sense now? Why would I be having fun with a stupid illusion?"

"Illusion?" A small part of Jace still thought that Alec was just making excuses. That thought wouldn't leave him alone, like a kid clinging to their mother on the first day of school. But Jace decided to set his suspicion aside for the moment, even as it grew louder in his head, in an effort to get Alec to calm down. "Clary and I both saw Magnus and he seemed exactly the same to us. And I assume you asked him a whole bunch of personal questions to check." _And then you celebrated,_ is what he didn't add to the end of that sentence. _Why won't you just admit it and move on?_

Alec opened his mouth to say something, but he must have thought better of it because he stopped and took a few deep breaths instead. "Of course I did. He seemed to remember everything I brought up perfectly, sometimes even finishing my sentences. And I guess that'd be enough to convince you, but not me. You don't know him as well as I do, so of course you think it's him. But something is off about him. He never notices the same things as I do. Usually, we could have a whole a whole conversation about some event and not even mention the same things at all. This time, it was like he was in my head, seeing everything exactly as I had seen it. So no, I'm not convinced."

Jace didn't say anything and Alec spoke again after a few moments. "All this yelling isn't getting us anywhere. Sorry to bother you." Alec tried to appear calm as he turned around and left, but he slammed the door behind him without really meaning to. His anger was still bottled up inside him; going over to Jace had been a complete waste of time. All he'd done was lie and belittle Alec until he'd begun to doubt himself. Which was not that surprising to Alec, in the end. He was usually wrong, and someone else was usually right. Just because he'd learned to stop trying to protect everyone and actually fight didn't mean that he wasn't still the weakest link in the group.

Alec realized he'd been heading back towards his house. _No,_ he thought _. The house belongs to Leviathan, not me. Don't get comfortable here._ But as he reached the fence, he realized that the illusion would be waiting for him inside. He turned away from the fence abruptly and decided that now was as good a time as any to explore their surroundings. Looking ahead, the street never seemed to end. The rows of perfect houses surrounded by white fences stretch on into the horizon. It was starting to hurt his eyes.

Out of curiosity, Alec walked up to one of the houses. The door was locked, as usual, but the curtains were pulled back. Alec peered into the house. No pictures adorned these walls, and the house seemed bare and vacant. The only piece of furniture he could see was a single wooden chair that looked rather uncomfortable. He wondered absently if these houses just suddenly… furnished themselves as soon as someone got trapped in Invid. Alec knew he'd likely never get the answer. Regardless, answers weren't going to present themselves _here_ anyway, so he stepped back out into the street to continue looking for ... something.

He found his something less than 5 minutes later. A small parkette. It had a little playground with colorful swings and a slide, a big oak tree, and beside it a bench. But what really surprised Alec was the view from the bench. In front of him, a sparkling lake surrounded by forest had appeared. It was too big for him not to have seen it from the houses—as he had taken to calling the two houses they were staying in—and yet there it was. It was mesmerizing. Alec sat on the bench and felt a calm settle over him, as if the lake had healing properties. A thought popped into his head before he could stop it. _I hope Jace doesn't find this place._ He dismissed it immediately, though the fact that it had occurred to him at all was troubling.

Suddenly, a voice behind him spoke. "Beautiful, isn't it? Almost reminds me of Lake Lyn." Alec bristled at the sound. He'd specifically been trying to avoid the fake Magnus. And right when he was just starting to feel better, of course. Alec didn't reply, instead opting for a noncommittal grunt. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Well, you. But other than that, nothing." His face remained neutral, but the words burned coming out of his mouth.

"Don't lie to me, Alec. I know you better than that." He stopped, waiting for Alec to answer. Alec simply stared at the lake. Part of him thought that if he put enough effort into ignoring the illusion, Leviathan would just give up. "I already know you fought with boy wonder. That can't possibly be the only thing bothering you, is it?"

Alec didn't like the way he was talking about Jace, but he had to admit it was perfectly in character, down to the slightly sarcastic nickname. _Could I be wrong about him?_ "Jace is my parabatai, of course a fight with him would bother me." said Alec huffily "Honestly, I'd just like to be left alone for a bit."

Magnus nodded and walked away from the bench silently.

Alec knew he'd be back soon enough. And he'd bring up Jace and Clary again, which would do nothing but rile him up again. Maybe he'd even go marching back there again in another fit of jealousy or whatever that was earlier.

Suddenly, he had a realization. He jumped up and ran back towards Jace's house.

This time, when Jace heard knocking, he knew who it was. He yanked open the door and took a deep breath to prepare himself for Alec's second outburst. Except it never came. Before Jace could react, Alec wrapped his arms around him in a quick, but strong hug.

"I am so sorry for yelling at you earlier. It was … weird. But I think I've figured it out."

Jace felt his face scrunch up in confusion "I didn't know there was anything to figure out."

Alec sat down on the step. "I've figured out why we were so mad at each other. Leviathan is _manipulating_ us. Jealousy is pretty much just a form of envy, right? So all he had to do was manipulate us to be jealous enough to fight." A new thought occurred to him, and he sighed. "And he probably made both of us hear the same thing, which made things even worse. You really weren't listening to music, were you?"

"No, and I'm guessing neither were you?"

"Definitely not." Though he was glad to have sorted this mess out, the issue of Magnus -fake or otherwise- still hung over him like a dark cloud. "I guess we'll just have to be careful from now on. Leviathan could be manipulating our emotions at any moment."

"I agree. I have a feeling this is just the beginning."

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Frezdafranklur: You're absolutely right, I HAVE to use that line or at least some variation thereof. Somewhere, somehow. Consider it done. (Might have to be in another story, though.)

TheArkAngel: Better? This one was longer!

Guest: Thank you so much! I really appreciate it and I'm sorry this took me so long!

[FF isn't letting me add the bunny this time :*( ]


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** _*peeks_ head in _nervously*_ Hi guys ... I know it has been absolutely forever since I've updated this story. Things got a little crazy in my life, then I moved somewhere temporarily for two months and then suffered months-long writers block on this story. I have decided to wait until finishing the whole story before publishing any more chapters, in case I get writers block again. But I figured I owed it to you readers who might still be waiting hopefully to say that I HAVE NOT abandoned this story! Also, I didn't want to post an annoying chapter-less author's note so you do get this chapter now, but it will be some time before any subsequent chapters come. Sorry for the horribly long wait, I honestly feel so bad.

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Alec, Jace and Clary stood in front of the lake. Magnus was there too, but Alec had decided to ignore that particular detail for the moment.

"Are we just going to stand around here all day?" asked Jace, impatiently.

.. .. ..

When the four of them had woken up the morning after Alec and Jace's fight, they each had one short black line on the inside of their wrists. They didn't know what it meant, or worse, how exactly they had gotten there. Eventually, after a few arguments, they had decided that the best thing to do was to not hang around hoping for the best, but actually set out and do something. The houses were filled with items picked just for them including, surprisingly, at least one of their favorite weapons in them. A bow and arrows for Alec, of course, a seraph blade for Clary, with its name helpfully listed on a label attached to it. Jace got a handful of daggers and blades to choose from. They took what they could carry easily from those and set out.

"If you're so impatient, why don't you just go?" Alec replied, though without much conviction. The truth was, the lake looked so much like Lake Lynn, no one was sure if it wouldn't have the same effect on them.

"We should maybe just go around it, then, if you're going to be a scardey cat about it." Jace's voice came out sounding the same as usual, amused and slightly haughty, but he didn't feel nearly as sure as he sounded. This was a demon realm. And as many things that there are that could kill you in the human world, there was likely a hundred times as many here.

"Both of you are being ridiculous right now. I have half a mind to throw you in the lake." said Clary. As usual, she had 0 patience for caution. "We are going to be stuck in here forever if you guys don't stop bickering. Or worse, Leviathan will show up."

Jace immediately jumped in with some sort of useless comeback and an argument between the two ensued. It was only half-hearted thought, and Alec wasn't even paying attention anymore. He bit his lip. He kind of wanted Leviathan to show up. He needed to get the real Magnus back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the imposter changing his clothes with magic. Such a Magnus thing to do. He'd changed into an outfit that he'd probably describe as jungle explorer chic, or some other ridiculous thing like that. Maybe he was wrong about this Magnus. Maybe this was the real him. How would Alec know? Yes, he needed Leviathan to show up, one way or another .That was the only thing he was sure about right now. But he couldn't say anything to them because he didn't know what exactly he'd do if he _did_ show up.

"Neither of them are good options." Alec said eventually. "Going around would take ages that we really don't have. And we don't know if the water is safe, not without some means of testing it." His voice was steady, but he didn't really believe what he was saying. One of those options would probably work fine. But he had no clue which one it was, and so he was pinning his hopes on a better, third plan. _There is one thing_ , he began to think, but discarded the idea almost immediately. Not quickly enough though, for Magnus not to have noticed his glance.

"What?" Magnus asked, somewhat harshly, before he seemed to understand. "I get it. You think I should test the water."

"No, of course not! I just ..." he trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.

"No, no, I get it." said Magnus. "I'm just a fake, right? Disposable?" The thought caused Alec genuine alarm before remembered that this wasn't the real Magnus.

"No, that's not what I—" He took a deep breath before continuing. He didn't even know why he was bothering to defend his actions to this fake. "That's a terrible idea anyway. Leviathan would have made you immune to the things that would kill us anyway." He turned back to face the lake and nearly pulled his hair out in frustration.

"Alec," said that horribly familiar voice. He spoke so softly, so gently, the same way Magnus always spoke to him when he was feeling sad or frustrated or angry. Alec felt himself relax automatically in reaction to his voice, before he caught himself. _Fake, fake, fake_ , he chanted to himself. It wasn't helping much. "Come here for a second."

Alec only hesitated for a second before giving in. He walked over to where Magnus was now standing, just outside of hearing distance of Jace and Clary, who had briefly paused their argument to listen to Alec but had since restarted. "What do you want?"

"You, happy." Alec sighed. It was such a Magnus thing to say. He was seriously beginning to doubt himself. He couldn't even remember what evidence he had found againnst this being the real Magnus. It seemed almost stupid now. "And if you don't let go of the idea that I'm not real, I'm worried you won't ever be happy."

The thing was, Alec was just so _tired_. He wanted nothing more than to sink to the ground with Magnus' arms wrapped around him. It would be so easy. He was sick of fighting, sick of running, sick of worrying. He lay down on the grass with a little laugh. "Since when have you become so pessamistic?" He didn't notice that he'd spoken to this Magnus as if he was his Magnus this time.

Magnus sank down to the ground beside him. "Not pessamistic, just realistic." Alec waited, but he didn't elaborate.

"Hmm?" Alec's eyes were closed and the sound of the wind through the glass was practically a lullaby.

"Realistic. Really, what are the chances we get out of here?"

"I dunno," Alec mumbled. "But we have to try."

"Why?" Alec opened his eyes and stared at Magnus. "I'm serious. I know this is a demon realm and you're probably going to say it's dangerous, but I understand th Princes more than anyone else alive, probably. If Leviathan wanted you dead, he'd have killed you already. He's never going to hurt you here."

Alec's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, would it really be so bad to stay here, with me? We'd have each other, and that's the most important. I'd be happy anywhere, as long as I have you. And I know you feel the same. So, what do you say?"

It took Alec a second to react. "Stay?"

Magnus nodded, face bright, open and full of hope.

Alec was on his feet in less than a second, dagger in hand. He'd actually forgotten he'd had the dagger on him, but thankfully his instincts hadn't. "Now I _know_ you're fake," he spat. "Thanks for that tip-off."

Magnus looked incredibly hurt. His face was screwed up in an expression that would have torn Alec's heart in two if he didn't know that this was just an illusion of Magnus in front of him. "What—what did I say?" Now Alec picked up all the little faults in his voice. He was attuned to every change in pitch of his voice, every move of his body. Everything screamed imposter at him. _How could I not have seen it before?_

"Magnus would know that I'd never stay here. I would never abandon my family like that. And I would be abandning them. Even you should know that Jace wouldn't stay here. Heaven knows, he'd probably get bored and accidentaly kill Leviathan's pet demon or something. So you will walk into that lake over there and if that doesn't kill you, I'll do it myself. Go."

The fake Magnus broke out into tears. "Alec—please," he cried. But a wall had been built around Alec's heart the moment he discovered the truth and nothing this illusion said would affect him now. He was just one more obstacle in the way of saving Magnus.

"My name is Alexander Lightwood, not Alec, and you will do as I say."

The two of them started moving towards the edge of the lake, Alec behind. But just as they reached the edge of the lake, Clary stepped in front of them.

"Alec! What are you doing?" she cried, her hand on his chest to stop him.

"Getting rid of this imposter, like I should have from the beginning."

A look of pity came into Clary's eyes. "Look, Alec. I get it. You told yourself that you were willing to go through hell or high water for Magnus, literally. And then you get here, and he's practically handed to you on a silver platter without having to do anything. But you don't have to battle hordes of demons or face Leviathan himself to be a hero. You already are. Just don't make a big mistake here." Jace didn't add anything, but Alec got the impression that he didn't exactly disagree.

Alec sighed. "I'm sure you think you know Magnus, Clary, but you really don't know him as well as I do." He turned towards the imposter. "Go." Clary looked like she was going to interfere again, but Jace grabbed her arm.

"He's right, Clary."

"Fine. I just hope you're not making a huge mistake." Clary said with a surprising amount of anger. _Leviathan's realm is affecting all of us so much_ , thought Alec. _We need to get out of here as soon as possible._

As soon as the imposter's feet hit the water, he started to disappear. It wasn't very noticable at first. Just a slight ... blurring around his ankles. But the blurriness soon traveled up his legs and then his torso, and then his whole body was blurry, like he wasn't quite solid. He started to sink slowly into the lake. Alec tried to hold his ground, but he had to turn away after a few seconds. As sure as he was, this Magnus still seemed just a little to real to him. But now his mind was clear and he could focus on the problem at hand. Getting across to the other side of the lake.

"Alec." Jace said, "You can turn around."

He did and what he saw shocked him. Starting from where Magnus had sunk, there was a bridge spanning the entire length of the lake.

"This wasn't here before, right?" Alec asked carefully.

"No."

"Just checking," he said as he jumped over the small gap of water between the ground and the bridge. "It's solid!" he told Jace and Clary, who were still on the shore. They quickly jumped over.

"Next time, throw a rock or something first, idiot, not yourself," joked Jace while making sure everything he'd been carrying made it over. Magnus had made it pretty far into the water before disappearing. As Jace ran his hand through his hair, Alec noticed something. He grabbed Jace's wrist and flipped it over. Sure enough, there was a extra black line. Alec checked his own wrist; he had one too.

"I think I get it!" shouted Clary after a few moments of stunned silence from all of them. "The marks. We get another one everytime we get past one of Leviathan's...challenges, or whatever you want to call them."

"So this one was getting rid of the fake Magnus? What does that have to do with envy?"

Alec let out a frustrated sigh. "Can we figure this out as we walk? I'd rather not just wait around here, twiddling my thumbs. I'll see you on the other side of bridge." And he started running, trying very hard—and failing—not to think about the two small lines on his wrist.


End file.
